Effect of a novel steak fabrication method by trimming subcutaneous and intermuscular fats on palatability and calorie content of beef ribeye steaks

This study investigated the effects of a novel steak fabrication method, involving removal of both subcutaneous and intermuscular fats between the longissimus thoracis ( LT ) and spinalis dorsi ( SD ) muscles before cooking, on beef ribeye steak palatability and calorie content. Canada AA ( n  = 10) and AAA (n = 10) ribeyes were fabricated into steaks either with (fat-on) or without (fat-off) subcutaneous and intermuscular fats. Fat-on steaks had shorter cooking times and lower cooking losses than fat-off steaks ( P  < 0.001), regardless of quality grade. There were treatment × quality grade interactions for initial ( P  < 0.01) and sustainable juiciness ( P  < 0.05) of the LT samples and initial juiciness ( P  < 0.05) of the SD samples, with the fat-on AA samples being more juicy than the fat-off AA samples, but the AAA treatments were not different from each other. Regardless of quality grade, fewer panelist responses indicated livery flavour ( P  < 0.05) for fat-on compared to fat-off LT samples. Regardless of fat-on/fat-off treatment, AA compared to AAA samples had more responses for bloody/serumy ( P  < 0.01) and unidentified off-flavours ( P  < 0.05) in LT samples. However, AAA samples had more responses for metallic off-flavour in LT ( P  = 0.059) and SD ( P  < 0.05). There were no differences in calorie content between fat-on compared to fat-off steaks ( P  > 0.1) regardless of quality grade and muscle type, or between AA and AAA steaks regardless of cooking with fat-on or off ( P  > 0.1). Maintaining the subcutaneous and intermuscular fats while cooking will improve ribeye steak palatability without increasing calorie content, especially for leaner steaks.